Murphy-OConnor Addresses Anglicans

March 02, 2009

Murphy-OConnor Addresses Anglicans

Divisions within the worldwide Anglican Communion impoverish all of Christianity, said Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor of Westminster during a speech to the General Synod of the Church of England on Feb. 9. “Let me be frank,” Murphy-O’Connor told the governing body of the Anglican Church in England. “Your struggles with issues on communion which deeply affect the unity of the Anglican Communion affect us all. Divisions within any church or ecclesial community impoverish the communion of the whole church.” Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor added that Catholics and Anglicans “cannot give up” their goal of unity “even if it still seems so distant.” But he reiterated remarks by other Catholic leaders, including Vatican officials, that the Church of England’s decisions on matters such as the episcopal ordination of women and the priestly ordination of sexually active homosexuals would affect “how our relationship is going to develop.”

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